Since getting into the business of building tools and learning resources for commercial cleaning customers, we’ve received a lot of questions about how to market a cleaning business.
Do I need a website? Should I use Facebook ads? Where else can I advertise my cleaning company?
Here are tips to market a cleaning business.
Market Cleaning Business Tip #1 - Up Close & Persona
If you’ve watched the One Page Marketing Plan workshop video, you know what we mean when we say a marketing “persona” and how important it is to identify who your ideal customer personas are before you invest time or money into marketing tactics.
Personas are a great way to make sure your marketing will connect and resonate with your target audiences. Up Close & Persona is a free tool to help you make your own personas.
Link: http://www.upcloseandpersona.com/
Market Cleaning Business Tip #2 - Website Design Templates
As you may have already noticed, the rise of millennials in decision-making positions at the types of organizations you serve has led to a change in the way cleaning companies are hired. In fact, we wrote an entire blog post about how internet-savvy office managers will research cleaning companies online before calling for a quote. You can read the post here.
In other words, it’s important to have a professional online presence that makes a good first impression — namely, a website.
But having a great-looking website doesn’t need a huge investment. Here are a few resources to help you find a design that will make a great first impression and set you apart from your competition.
Link: https://www.templatemonster.com/
Link: https://www.elegantthemes.com/
Hosting and Domain Registration: www.godaddy.com
All in one design and hosting: www.wix.com | www.squarespace.com
Market Cleaning Business Tip #3 - Ring.Ninja
Have you ever hung up the phone after talking to a prospective client and thought “I wonder how they found out about us…”?
When we were a cleaning company, we tried lots of different marketing tactics — even things like putting ads on pizza boxes. Because who doesn’t love pizza?!
But when it came time to re-invest in that tactic, we knew to say “No way, Jose” to those pizza box ads, because they just weren’t working.
How did we know this? We used a tool called Ring.ninja to track where our phone calls are coming from to better understand what marketing activities drive your customers to call.
And you can too! We wrote a whole blog post about it here.
Link: ring.ninja
Market Cleaning Business Tip #4 - Google Forms
Surveying customers — or potential customers — is something all small businesses should do, but few actually do it.
Understanding what their day-to-day activities look like, the people they serve, and the challenges they face can all help you better market to more businesses like them, as well as upsell current customers.
Google Forms is a simple and free way to collect information from customers. We also recommend learning more about your cleaners by creating surveys for them as well!
Link: https://www.google.ca/forms/about/
Market Cleaning Business Tip #5 - Facebook Advertising Training
At some point in your business you’ve probably considered, and maybe even tried out, Facebook ads. And that’s great! Facebook is an amazing channel to reach and engage your audience.
Having said that, without a good understanding of how Facebook’s algorithm works, and what types of ad content actually perform well, you risk spending a lot of money for not a whole lot of return. Before launching your next Facebook ads campaign, take a look at these free courses to learn the fundamentals of marketing on Facebook.
Link: https://www.facebook.com/blueprint
Market Cleaning Business Tip #6 - Adwords Training
Search (ie. Google) is the number one way people research answers to the questions they have. And advertising to people who are looking for cleaning services in your city tends to be much more cost effective than advertising to people casually scrolling through their social media feeds looking for cute cat videos. Google Adwords allows you to pay to show your relevant answer in the form of an ad.
But the same rule applies to Google Adwords as Facebook ads — learn before you launch! The links below will help you understand how to get the best bang for your buck and see a return on your ad spend.
Best Practices: https://goo.gl/GC6dRd
Paid Training via Lynda.com: https://goo.gl/cVOspl
